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How easy would it be to put the 1980's style chrome bumper assembly from an E30 on an early 90's style E30 that came with the color coded bumpers.
Is the mounting a direct swap, or would it require some kind of modification?

You could swap the front bumpers... but why? That would be a downgrade for the car. The rear bumpers won't work because the rear wheel wells are shaped differently on the late e30's versus the early models.

Body lines are different and will not line up correct. pre 9/87 is original E30 and post 9/87 is consider facelift models where the rear arches were lowered and the back valance was extended and the taillights were made bigger.

That being said You could make some sort of mounts to hang them but the molding that goes around the edges of the bumper will never mount to a
facelifted car.

EDIT: I forgot about our 1 year only car, 1988 model's had aluminium bumpers and such the plastic was made for this year for the facelifted chassis. So what I said before does not come into play. Finding someone that wants to ditch their metal bumpers for plastic is very common.